Irish megastore bans Israeli potatoes

A leading food and retail megastore that operates in Ireland has stopped selling two lines of baby potatoes that are sourced from Israel.

German owned megastore LIDL is one of Ireland’s largest chain store’s and they deny that the banning of Israeli products is politically motivated.

The Irish public have reacted angrily to the Israeli’s illegal raid of the Gaza aid flotilla. Indeed many have began to boycott Israeli products and websites and leaflets are being distributed asking the public to avoid purchasing products that have a barcode number starting with the numbers 729 (denotes Israeli origin).

Last year Ireland imported goods worth $100million from Israel and exported over $240million to Israel.

Irish peace activists and members of Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign are calling on the public to peacefully boycott all Israeli products until the Israeli blockade of Gaza is lifted.

However LIDL denies they have banned Israeli products and claim that they have moved to an alternative source which is “in line with seasonable changes”.

As well as boycotting Israeli products, activists are asking consumers to boycott Dublin’s Luas tram line, as the parent company has invested heavily in Israel. Consumers have also been asked not to buy Jaffa oranges and products from CRH.

CRH is a large corporate company that specializes in cement products all over the world, it is Irish owned and is involved in building the Israeli, West Bank barrier.